Don’t play Total Control. It’s not worth the $20,000
My buddy Steve was a genius at making money without doing anything. At one point, he was enrolled in 12 different clinical trials at the same time. Some of these were for drugs that would have had bad interactions, but it didn’t matter to Steve, because he never actually took the drugs. He did it like they do in the movies and just slipped them under his tongue and then spat them into his hand when the doc was turned away. Other trials were for new therapeutic approaches and things like that, but those were no problem for Steve either. At most, he had to lie (literally and metaphorically) on somebody’s couch for an hour each week, then collect his check on the way out. But eventually they caught on, and Steve was put on some kind of list. There was a nationwide ban on Steve, so that he couldn’t participate in any more trials sponsored by universities or private drug companies, which essentially precluded him from that easy money. But Steve found a workaround. Not all experiments are above board and sanctioned by the FDA or whatever. There is, in fact, a hidden world of people testing things out in their garages, streamlining the whole process, without having to worry about pesky and expensive regulations. One of Steve’s friends gave him a link to a forum on the dark web, and after that, he was in the pipeline. The thing about these “experiments” is that if it were for, say, a new drug, they didn’t trust you to just swallow the pill. You had to open your mouth and lift your tongue. You had to actually take the thing, because these people weren’t fucking around. But boy did they pay. * One morning, I was awakened by an insanely loud banging at my apartment door. “Who’s that?” moaned my girlfriend, Sofia. I looked at the clock with bleary eyes. It was 5:55 AM. “Open up dude!” shouted Steve from the hallway. “Oh fuck him,” said Sofia. “He could be in trouble,” I said, shooting out of bed, full of adrenaline. I answered the door in my boxers, and there was Steve, bouncing up and down, his pupils each the size of the full moon. “Are you okay?” I asked. “I’m awesome!” said Steve. “Holy shit dude… this stuff… they gave me $1000 to take one fucking pill and it rules so much. It feels so good. Oh my God, Jay. Oh my God.” My head hurt as I tried to piece together a thought. “So you’re… high… and you came to tell me that you got paid a lot of money to get high?” I felt a surge of rage welling up deep inside of me. “Ha! Yes! I mean, no! Look man, you’re my best friend. I love you. I love you so much. I want to… no, listen, I came here because look. Look. There’s money. A lot of money! For me and for you. Twenty fucking thousand dollars. For a video game! To play a video game or something dude! 20 grand. To play a video game for a few hours. Look, I’m just telling you this because I love you. You don’t need to take drugs or anything. Just do some virtual reality stuff for a few hours and boom, 20 grand in your pocket, like that.” The flood of rage died down as I tried to make sense of what Steve was saying. I couldn’t. “What are you saying?” I asked. “Why are you here before the crack of dawn? Sofia’s pissed and so am I, really.” “No no no,” said Steve, with a horrified look on his face. “No, I want you to be happy! Sofia too! Look. Listen. Look. You still have that Tor browser I set you up with and all that?” “Uh… I guess so.” “Good good good. Listen. Look.” Steve jammed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Look. Just type this in and you’ll see. You’ll see. Easy money, okay. Twenty thousand dollars. You can finally buy that engagement ring you’ve been….” I reached out and smacked Steve across the side of the head. “Jesus Christ dude, keep it down, yeah?” Steve looked shocked and hurt for a moment before the realization dawned on him. “Oh. Shit. My bad, my bad. I’m sorry dude. I’m sorry. I wish I could delete it. I wish I could delete it. Listen… are you going to check this out or what?” He held out the crumpled piece of paper to me. I took it and shrugged. “I’ll check it out, Steve, but that’s it for now. Why don’t you head home and sleep this one off huh?” “Yes,” said Steve, nodding his head like crazy. “Yes. Check it out. I’ll sleep it off.” I started to close the door, but he stuck his foot in just before it closed. “Uh… dude?” “Yeah?” “Can I use your bathroom?” I opened the door and sighed as he rushed into the bathroom and started puking his guts out. * Steve received a ban from our apartment after that, but we stayed in touch. He would text me every few hours, asking if I’d checked out the advertisement for the video game trial yet. The truth was that I had checked it out as soon as he left that morning, but I was undecided. On the one hand, the $20,000 sure was intriguing. That was almost half again as much as I made in a year… more than half, after taxes. And I had a feeling that this wasn’t the sort of gig where they took taxes out. I’d be able to do a lot with the money. Take Sofia out for all kinds of dinners, maybe take a vacation and travel somewhere interesting… the kinds of things we always wanted to do, but never could afford to do. Then too, yes, there was that engagement ring. Sofia would say yes either way, even if I presented her with some rolled up aluminum foil… but I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to be special, but I couldn’t afford to make it special. On the other hand, well, the whole thing was sketchy as fuck. Who pays some Joe off the street $20K to test out a video game? And why go through such shady channels to set the thing up? I knew, from the start, that nothing good could come from it. I knew that, but I did it anyway. “Alright,” I wrote in a text to Steve. “I’m in for the video game thing.” “My man! We’re gonna be swimming in fucking caviar my dude.” * Steve and I drove to the address together. It was, strangely, a respectable looking office building. We went up to the entrance and looked at the map of the building. There was a lawyer in there, a counselor, an accountant, and so forth. “Shit,” said Steve. “Which fucking office is it?” On cue, his phone buzzed. “Oh,” he said. “The basement.” “The basement?” I asked. “Not for real? The basement? I don’t know about this, man….” “Come on dude. Twenty thousand dollars. And in such a nice building too. I’m used to going to crazy people’s garages and swallowing god knows what. This is going to be cake.” I nodded, but as we walked to the elevator, my sense of unease grew larger and larger until it was screaming at me: Turn around! Whatever this is, it’s bad! “It’s just a video game,” I muttered. “What’s that?” asked Steve. I snapped out of it. “I said, ‘let’s go play this dumb video game and get paid.’” “That’s the attitude,” said Steve, grinning, as the elevator door slid closed behind me. We rode down to the basement as I tried to calm myself down. It’s a video game. In the basement of a respectable office. Probably, they could only afford to rent the basement. I shut myself up before I could ask: they could only afford to rent the basement, but they’re paying you $20K each? When we reached the bottom, the doors slid open and the first thing that I saw was a man and a woman sitting at a plastic work table in the middle of a large room. Other than that, it looked like a standard basement with equipment like boilers and hot water heaters and exposed wiring and concrete floors. “Welcome,” said the woman. “Steven and Jason… is that right?” “That’s us,” said Steve, stepping off the elevator. I followed behind and watched as the woman wrote something on her clipboard. “That’s fantastic,” said the man. “Right on time… well, a few minutes late, but that’s okay.” He laughed. “It happens,” said the woman, smiling. “People have things to do. And we respect that here. That’s why we’re going to get right down to business. Or, ah, nearly so. First, we need you to sign the contract.” The woman held out two clipboards and we each took one. Before I looked at it, I took a moment to note that my unease had not subsided, despite the surface friendliness of the man and the woman. Somehow, that made it more bizarre… that they were just sitting there, so poised amongst the plumbing pipes running overhead, ready to offer us a lot of money to play a video game. “Where do we play the game?” I asked, looking around. I didn’t see a TV or anything. “Up here,” said the man, tapping his head. “Uh…” I started, but Steve gave me a nudge. “They’ll tell us what to do,” he said. “just sign the contract dude.” He scrawled some information into a few boxes and dashed off a signature while I read more closely. The Participant agrees not to seek compensation beyond the predetermined amount. In this case, the predetermined amount is 20,000USD for participating in one trial game of “Total Control” (TC). The Makers of TC, and the Administrators of the Trial, hereby relieve themselves of all liability for any injuries sustained during game play, with the express agreement of the Participant. “Injuries?” I asked. “What kind of game is this?” The woman smiled. “Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to tell you anything about the game until you sign the contract. After that, you’ll know all about it.” In the event that The Participant is unable to collect the predetermined amount at the end of the game, the Makers of TC will transfer the funds to a person of The Participant's choosing. The following box is for the Participant to note the name and address of the next of kin. “So you’re saying that if we die, you’ll give the money to somebody that we choose?” I asked. “Is that right?” “That’s right,” said the man. “If we die while playing your game,” I stressed. I turned to Steve. “This is nuts.” Steve shrugged. “It’s a lot of money dude. Take it or leave it. I’m taking it.” I tried to convince myself to leave it, but then I thought about going to Europe with Sophia. I wrote her name in the “next of kin” box and then signed the form. I handed the clipboard back to the woman, who scanned it over. “Fantastic!” she said. “Now will you tell us what this game is?” I asked. “We’ll do better than that,” said the man. He reached down into a cardboard box on the ground and pulled out what looked to be two headsets. “We’ll show you the game. Please, gentlemen, put these devices on your heads, and prepare for an experience unlike any other. Or so we hope,” he added, laughing. Steve didn’t hesitate to put the thing on his head. It looked like the front half of a helmet, with an elastic band securing it in place, and a pair of glasses attached to the helmet. “I don’t see anything,” said Steve. “It’s a two player game,” said the man, nodding to me. I took a deep breath. It’s just a fucking game. I put the headset on and looked through the glasses. Everything looked the same, except it had a slight yellow tint. I watched as the man reached into the box again and brought out two video game controllers. He handed one to the woman, and then they each pushed a button. I heard Steve scream a split second before I heard the hiss of some hydraulic mechanism being engaged just above my ear. Then I felt the most intense pain in my life. It felt like something was being jabbed directly into my fucking brain… and that’s exactly what was happening. A trickle of blood rolled down the side of my head as my brain lit up with pain. Then I was out of it. * When I woke up, I was strapped to a chair, sitting opposite the man and woman behind their table, and next to Steve. There was only a dull ache in my head now, but it didn’t take long for me to burst into a full-on panic. “Ah good,” said the woman. “You’re both awake.” She stood up calmly, walked over, and undid my straps. “What is this?” I gasped. “What the fuck is this?” “It’s an experiment,” said the man. “Don’t worry, we’ve ironed out some kinks since the last time we tried it.” “What experiment?” I asked, standing up on wobbly legs. “What are you going to do to us?” The woman went to work un-strapping Steve. “We’ve implanted a device in your head,” she explained. “It allows us to control your physical movements. Or so we hope.” Steve rubbed his head. “What the fuck? You’re going to pay us, right?” “Of course,” said the man. He reached into his cardboard box and pulled out two thick envelopes. “I hope cash is okay.” He tossed them across the table to our feet. Steve bent down and tore his open. I saw the cash inside. “Okay,” he said. “That’s worth it for a little headache I guess. Alright. So you’ve implanted these devices in our brains. Okay. So can we leave now?” “You can try,” said the man. “But you won’t be able to if we don’t want you to,” said the woman. “And we don’t want you to,” said the man. “Not until you fight to the death,” said the woman. I jumped to my feet and tried to slow down my breathing. “Come on man,” I said to Steve. “That’s enough of this.” I bent down to pick up my envelope, and then started walking towards the elevator. “Thanks for the money, guys,” said Steve. Then he followed behind me and pushed the button. The light came on and we waited for the elevator to come. Then I reached my fist back and swung it as hard as I could at Steve’s jaw. It connected with a loud crack and I saw a spray of blood leave his mouth. “Whuh uh fahk?” groaned Steve, rubbing his jaw. I felt dizzy. What the fuck indeed. Why had I just socked my best friend in the face for no reason? “I… dude, I’m so sorry. I have no idea why I did that.” Steve spit out some blood on the basement floor. “Forget it. Let’s just get the fuck out of here.” The elevator door dinged. “Sounds good to me,” I said, as the doors slid open. I went to step in when suddenly I felt a hand grab my shoulder and roughly spin me around. It was Steve. He had a confused look on his face as he grabbed my neck with both hands and started to choke me. My nerves exploded in panic as I struggled to breathe. I felt myself bring my knee up into Steve’s balls. He let go of my neck then and hunched over. “What’s happening?” he gasped. I brought my elbow down on his back and he screamed out in pain. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.” I looked over at the man and the women still seated behind their plastic work table. They were each holding their game controllers, and smiling. “What the fuck is happening?” The woman pushed a button and suddenly Steve lunged at me, driving his shoulder into my gut. We hit the ground together, my elbow taking the brunt of the impact. “I’m so sorry!” cried Steve. “I can’t stop it!” I reached up and grabbed Steve’s face in my hand. I didn’t want to. I tried to make myself stop, but I couldn’t. I began squeezing between my thumb and middle finger, which were spread out and gripped into the spot behind his eye sockets. “Stop this!” I shouted. Steve sunk into my palm with his teeth and tore a chunk of my flesh off. I felt a searing pain, and a deep fear as his spit my skin onto the ground. I tried to will myself to stay still, but I couldn’t. I punched him in the eye. When his head jerked back from the blow, I pushed against his chest, and twisted around, so that now I was on top of him. I took a clump of his hair in my hand and began smashing his head against the concrete floor, again and again and again. I was crying. I was begging myself to stop. I was begging the man and the woman to stop whatever they were doing. I was begging Steve to forgive me, as his head hit the floor with a thunk that sounded wetter and wetter each time, as blood gushed and sprayed everywhere. “Okay,” said the man after a while. “That’s enough. My player is dead now.” I heard the woman laugh. “I told you I would win.” Suddenly, I was in control of my own movements again. I set Steve’s head gently on the ground and knelt next to him, sobbing. “What have I done?” I wailed. “What did you make me do?!” “Now now,” said the man, standing up. “It’s not all bad news.” He walked over and picked up the envelope of cash that Steve had dropped. “He did name you as his next of kin. So you’ve just made forty thousand dollars.” I looked up at him with burry eyes. “You fucking monsters,” I said, standing up. “I’ll fucking kill you.” I ran at him full of rage, with my arms outstretched. But when I got to him, I slowed down, spread my arms wider, and embraced him in a friendly hug. My mind screamed in terror and rage, but my body wouldn’t respond. “We control you now,” said the woman. “We’re happy to let it go at this. You’ve served our purpose, as a beta tester. We’ll let you get in that elevator, with your money, and you’ll never hear from us again. If you honor your contract. Do you remember your contract? There’s a copy of it in your back pocket. There’s one bit that you should pay careful attention to. The bit about how you are never to tell anyone anything close to what happened here. Don’t worry about coming up with an explanation for your friend. We’ll take care of that. All that you have to do about this all is… literally nothing. Don’t say a word. You’re probably best forgetting it ever happened.” “There’s a hose in the corner,” said the man. “Clean yourself up, take your money, and leave.” I did that. I just wasn’t sure if I was the one doing it. * After I killed Steve, my life fell apart. Of course it did. I knew that I wasn’t in control of my actions at the time, but that didn’t help at all. I’d watched the life leave his eyes and I’d gone on smashing his head against the concrete again and again, well after he was dead. I had nightmares about it every night. And the worst part was that I couldn’t tell anybody about it. What was I supposed to do? Turn myself in to the police? For murdering my best friend literally against my will? How would that help anything? I wanted to tell Sofia. I wanted to tell her so badly, but I couldn’t. Those people had put The Fear in me. We started doing fancy things together with the money, like going out to eat, but it was no good. It was like a part of me had died when Steve had died. When I had bashed the life out of him. Sofia didn’t want fancy dinners and all of the things that money can buy. She wanted me. But I wasn’t there anymore. I started drinking more and more. I considered suicide. Not seriously at first… but as time went by, it seemed more and more like a viable option. Anything to stop the never ending guilt and grief. For her part, Sofia stuck with me for longer than could have been hoped for. But finally it got to be too much. It was clear enough that things were over well before the night we lay in bed together after yet another failed attempt at making love. “I can’t do this anymore, Jay,” she said. “I love you, but something changed after Steve’s accident. I know that he was your best friend and it tore your heart out… but what about life? What about me? You didn’t die. I didn’t die. We’re still here. And… I can’t do it anymore. It’s been three months and I don’t think I’ve heard you laugh once. I… I’m not blaming you. And I can’t tell you how much I wanted to be able to do this. It’s my failure, really. But like I said. We’re still alive and I want to live while I can. And I want you to live too.” I clenched my jaw, trying to fight back the tears. I tried to think rationally. If you really love her, you’ll tell her to fuck off. But I didn’t. “I have to tell you something,” I said. Then, as my soul screamed in horror, I smothered her with a pillow. * I’ve been in bed with Sofia’s corpse for two days now. Yesterday, I got a text: “We have gathered all the data we need. Your contract has been fulfilled. Your unit has been deactivated. We thank you for your participation, and wish you the best of luck.” I don’t know what to do. I’ll start here, by typing this out. My name is Jay, and I killed my best friend and the love of my life, but I wasn’t in control of my body at the time. Where do I go from here? Category:Fanfic Category:Creepypasta